


When No One is Looking

by junko



Series: Chasing Demons [40]
Category: Bleach
Genre: M/M, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-07
Updated: 2013-02-07
Packaged: 2017-11-28 13:09:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/674748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/junko/pseuds/junko
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Renji finds himself alone for the night without Byakuya, but the next day is full of surprising revelations about his captain.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When No One is Looking

Renji wasn’t quite sure how it happened, but he ended up back in his own room that night. 

His quarters stank of a combination of neglect and stale beer. He’d forgotten to clean up after the impromptu party and now his narrow room reminded him of his shared seated officers’ quarters at the Eleventh, complete with empty bottles he accidentally kicked across the room in the dark.

As he cleaned up the worst of it, Renji sighed. Byakuya had been in a funny mood after he’d gotten his tea. He was quiet, which was normal, but this silence had had an inward, reflective… almost sad vibe to it.

It hadn’t helped that in the middle of it all, Renji’s body decided to start aching. Hangover, road rash, and kidō-pounding had finally caught up with him with a vengeance. So, he hadn’t had the energy to try to draw Byakuya out of whatever funk he’d fallen into.

 _‘Whatever funk.’_ Like he didn’t know, Renji snorted to himself as he bagged the last of the empty bottles. It was the upcoming mission. Neither of them wanted to deal with the fact that he’d be leaving soon and how much that sucked.

Just when they were starting to figure things out, too.

Elbowing open his door, Renji set the bag of garbage outside to be dealt with in the morning. He stopped for a moment and looked out at the starry sky. Moonlight shone on the division’s back gate and onto the grounds of Kuchiki estate. He could almost, if he squinted, see the tallest of the curved roofs of the main building over the tops of the cherry trees. “Why you chose to be alone tonight, I don’t know,” Renji said, as though Byakuya might somehow hear him. 

He’d offered to stay, after all. 

But Byakuya had used Yachiru as his excuse. She’d be coming in the morning and had a child’s tendency to ask all the awkward questions. Or so Byakuya believed. Renji knew better. The little lieutenant kept plenty of secrets and knew much, much more about living with a bunch of rowdy men than Byakuya suspected--or would probably be comfortable thinking about.

So Renji hadn’t pushed the point. 

Besides, if he’d stayed overnight at the estate, there’d be pressure for sex. And, as crazy as it seemed, Renji wasn’t up for it. Not tonight. Not with his body already feeling this battered. Maybe—if sex were a simpler affair, but the idea of waking up with bruises on his bruises sounded… exhausting. It was a shame Kazu didn’t seem interested in a threesome. It’d be a nice change to just have fun and mess around with someone, no equipment or safe word needed. 

Renji wasn’t even sure what that was like anymore.

Taking one last breath of fresh air, Renji went back into his quarters. He left the door slightly open for a breeze. He set Zabimaru near the foot of the bed, but within easy reach. Then, after shucking his clothes into the corner, he collapsed onto his cot.

Rolling over, he stared at the ceiling. They’d be off tomorrow night to take a class on how to have sex together. He snorted. That’s how complicated things had gotten. Sad.

Tucking his hands under his head, Renji closed his eyes.

What was the seminar even going to be like? He wasn’t sure if he should be looking forward to it, or dreading it. He was excited to take Byakuya out of the Soul Society again, at least. Byakuya was different when he thought no one was looking, and that increased tenfold in the Human World. Dancing with him at the club!? That had been amazing. Honestly, the love hotel, even with all the things… it had been fun to watch Byakuya open up and play a little, share his fantasies like that. 

And he’d learned things about himself, too.

Turns out, Renji’d liked spanking, but sucked at role-playing. Well… maybe with practice, he could improve on that last one. Maybe he just needed to put in training time, as it were. Heh. He could do almost anything with enough training.

Renji flopped on to his side and pulled the blanket up over his shoulders. He fell asleep with a wicked sort of smile on his lips.

#

Despite having gone to bed at a reasonable hour, the sun fell like a sledgehammer on Renji’s head. He pulled himself upright with a groan and a curse at the chipper birds making such a fucking happy racket in the eaves. 

He held onto his head and squinted at the sun pouring in through the door. As much as he wanted to just flop back and sleep seven thousand more hours, Renji had a crapload of things to do today. Not the least of which was get a new pair of socks.

He dug through his footlocker for ten minutes before remembering that his favorite cherry blossom robe was at the estate, hanging up nicely in one of Byakuya’s many closets. Sitting down heavily and naked on the floor, Renji muttered a dejected, “Fuck,” before dragging himself upright and pulling on yesterday’s clothes. 

It was going to be a long day.

#

Renji was not in the mood to take crap off the quartermaster. Fuck it; he hadn’t even had tea yet.

“I ain’t buying another full set,” Renji said, folding his hands in front of his chest. “I’ll just go without tabi, and you can explain to the captain why his lieutenant isn’t in proper uniform.” 

It was surprising how quickly the quartermaster hopped to at that thought. In fact, Renji left with two pair of socks, gratis.

Things improved tremendously after that because Renji decided to let his crappy mood carry him. For instance, seeing the breakfast queue at the mess, he decided once again that the best response was a simple: ‘fuck it.’ So, instead of trying to elbow his way to the front, he shunpō’d to the estate. He let himself in the back door to the kitchen. 

As it happened, his timing was perfect. Miki was just setting the last of the tea things on the tray. 

“I’ll take that up,” he offered. Seeing all the cakes and fruit, Renji asked, “Is Lieutenant Kusajishi here already?” 

It seemed awfully early for anyone from the Eleventh to be up and about, but Miki nodded as she set a third tea bowl on the overloaded tray. “There should be plenty for all of you. You’ll find them in the library.”

#

Renji heard them before he found them. There were high pitched giggles coming from the far corner of the library. Renji followed the sounds until he came across a series of blankets that were stretched between bookshelves and a low table—like a haphazard lean-to. 

Though a gap in the blankets, Renji could see Byakuya and Yachiru stretched on the floor underneath. They played a game that involved spinning tops. Byakuya’s hair was unbound and he wore the hidden-frog kimono. It was apparently Byakuya’s turn at the tops, because Yachiru crawled over Byakuya cheerfully counting up frogs and giggling at each new find. “Twenty!” she shouted gleefully.

In his usual reserved tone, Byakuya reminded her, “Very good. But, there are eight more.”

Renji was pretty sure his mouth was hanging open at the sight of Yachiru sitting on Byakuya’s butt, poking her tiny finger at all the lily pads on the fabric, as though trying to coax frogs to jump out from under them. Byakuya looked so startlingly at ease, as if it were perfectly natural that he be sprawled out on the floor with toys scattered everywhere.

Positioned as she was, Yachiru glanced up through the gap and spied Renji first. “Oooh, breakfast! Can Renji bring the tray into our fort, Byakuya? Can he play too?”

Fort? Yachiru must mean the lean-to.

Byakuya glanced over his shoulder at Renji. “I don’t see why not. But the lieutenant will have to be careful not to bring the walls down on us.”

“Yes, sir,” was all Renji could think to say. He set the tray down and slid it under a table into the anxious, greedy hands of Yachiru. But, getting his bulk under the ‘fort’ seemed almost impossible. The design was flimsy and random. When his shoulder snagged an edge, Renji had to catch one of the blankets and tuck it more securely under the pile of books that held it in place. He ended up hunched under the blankets with one draped over his topknot, like he was a pole in their tent.

“Well, I suppose that gives us a bit more room,” Byakuya said with a slight smile. He sat up on his elbows enough to reach for the tea. Setting out three bowls, Byakuya carefully poured into each one. He handed one to Renji. To Yachiru, he said, “The cook will have sent up milk and honey for you.”

“Oh, tea!” she said. “Let’s pretend it’s a tea ceremony.”

“All right,” Byakuya said very seriously. “But if this is a tea ceremony, you must wear a fancy dress or I’ll be terribly offended. Run and find Eishirō. He’ll get you something nice. When you come back Renji and I will have everything ready for the ceremony.”

Yachiru scurried out, crawling on her hands and knees, nearly knocking the tea out of Renji’s hand as she rushed by with a squeal, “A dress up party!”

“There,” Byakuya said with a sigh. “That should keep her busy for a while. Help me put these things away.”

“Uh… sure,” Renji reached for the tops scattered around the floor. They were beautiful. Made with conical sea shells and filled with wax, each one was individual and unique. 

Byakuya must have noticed Renji’s interest and said, “I suppose you think me foolish holding on to such childish things.”

Renji carefully placed the tops into their box and pulled the blanket off his head. “No, of course not,” he said, as he started dismantling the lean-to. “Besides, you have to save them to pass on to your—“

Stopping himself, Renji glanced at Byakuya, who was setting the tea tray on the newly cleared off table. Renji had no idea if children were a sensitive subject. It was possible Byakuya already had kids of his own living elsewhere, though that seemed doubtful given his aunt’s constant pressure to remarry. But, given his history… Byakuya could've tragically lost one. Had Hisana been pregnant when she died? 

Renji was ready to reflexively apologize, when Byakuya said, “It is my greatest regret. I would have wished for a child to remember Hisana by.”

Now he did say it, even though it seemed like such a weak response in comparison to Byakuya’s grief: “I’m sorry. That… sucks. You’d be a good dad.”

Byakuya’s lips were thinly pressed together as he returned books to their proper places on the shelves. “Perhaps,” he said darkly. Then he glanced over at Renji briefly and mustered up a little half-grimace, half-smile, “Though, I think I make a better ‘uncle’ to other people’s children. I suspect I’d be too demanding of a child of my own.”

Renji could see that. He folded up the blanket and set it on the floor. He reached for the next one, and nearly knocked over a bookstand. Luckily, he was able to catch it in time. “This is the craziest thing, a ‘fort.’ I don’t get it. Why would you need something like this? You’re already indoors.”

“Did you never play fort--?” Now it was Byakuya’s turn to stop awkwardly. “No, of course not,” he said, dropping his gaze. “I suppose there was never any time for frivolous activities.”

Renji shook his head, “Aw, it wasn’t always like that. We found ways. We played ‘Darumasan ga Koronda’ and ‘Onigokko’ and things where you didn’t need any special stuff. And we made up our own games, like all kids do.”

At Renji’s answer, Byakuya seemed to relax. He had a soft smile as he shook his head, “Onigokko. You have no idea how much I hate that game.”

Renji laughed. “Yeah, but you were playing it with a real hell cat. Tag ain’t no fun if you never catch anyone.”

“I’ll have you know that I did, occasionally, catch her,” Byakuya sniffed, “Well, at least once.”

“Sure, Taicho,” Renji said fondly, reaching for the last of the blankets. “Sure.” 

But Byakuya was looking out the open door at the contemplative garden, clearly lost in thought. “A horrible game,” he was saying as though to himself. “Just when I started to catch up to her, she was gone for good.”

Renji frowned at the sadness in Byakuya’s voice. He knew nothing about why Yourichi ended up leaving the Soul Society, except for vague rumors about her connection to Urahara’s escape and all the upset around the illegal hollowification devices he was supposedly inventing, all of which looked to be more and more like part of Aizen’s schemes as well. It’d never occurred to Renji that Byakuya might have feelings about Yourichi's ‘betrayal.’

Renji hunted around for a good place for the lacquer box that held the tops, and eventually just offered it to Byakuya. As their eyes met over the box, Renji wanted to say he was sorry again, but he had no words. Instead, he asked, “You and the Lady Yourichi were close?”

Byakuya took the box and seemed to carefully consider Renji’s question. His eyes were focused on the inlaid pattern of a swan in flight, and his fingers absently caressed edges already worn smooth with age. “I suppose that in truth we were no more than acquaintances, really. She was very much older than I, and her loyalties clearly lay elsewhere, but I… I had no… that is, I had so few peers. But, my family had many dealings with the Shihōin clan, so we visited each other frequently. Before her exile, I thought of her very fondly, like an older sister. An often irritating one, but—still,” He set the box aside, on the nearest bookshelf. Byakuya seemed to take a moment to draw in steadying breath, and then looked up at Renji. “Yourichi may have felt differently, I suppose. I may not have made the best impression. I was somewhat willful in my youth.”

“Willful?” Renji had to smile, “Heh. Isn’t that your word for me?”

Byakuya reached up a hand and cupped Renji’s face. Cool fingers traced downward along angles of cheekbone. “It is.”

Renji leaned forward to steal a quick kiss. He stayed close enough to purr into Byakuya’s ear, “It’s hard to imagine. I mean, you all ‘willful.’ What was that even like?”

Byakuya made a teasing sort of wouldn’t-you-like-to-know noise, but put his hand on Renji’s chest as though to hold off further intimacy. “Yachiru will be back any moment. We must have the garden set up.” He started to turn away, but looked over his shoulder briefly to add, “We’ll have plenty of time to ourselves tonight.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks go to Josey (cestus) for her usual beta'ing, companionship, and encouragement. Sorry to keep you all on tenter hooks about the sex shop seminar, but, I am, as always self-indulgently enjoying daily life at the Gotei 13. There will be a little bit more before our boys get to the big pay off, but it's in the works, I SWEAR. (But I'm craving a tiny bit of Kenpachi/Kuchiki interaction first).... plus, I *am* attempting the ocassional plot point, so Renji will get his assignment so I can have an excuse to hive off the next bit as its own series.
> 
> Also? Can I just give you all a general THANK YOU for bearing with my never-ending soap opera. It's... yeah... just THANKS.


End file.
